Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-10-14
CORNERED BY BEARS.
4 Colorado Miners ldremturc IN Md
,cinfer on the Mountains.
rno,or

call | ever had. 1t was last winter"
continued Sullivan, when me and my
partner, Jim Rogers, was working an
assessment on a couple of old prospects
OF ours up in Geneva Park, about half
way between Grant and Montezuma.
Grub had given out few days before,
and while Jim was driving the work on
q 100-foot level through solid rock l
started over to Montezuma for supply
of grub. Snow! Well, I should re-
mark. And cold! Well, if we hadn't
had to have grub nothing else would
have got me over that seven miles and
back, but it had to come over and l
brought it. I had just got to the cabin
and fixed up supper for Jim and me
and got the dishes on the table. [
stepped to the door to throw out some
/ potato parings, talking to Jim, when,
rs / turned around at the door, saw,
looking through the little window in
the side of the cabin, one of the ugliest
and biggest bears that 1 ever want to
see She was sitting on her launches
and looking right at me, and as turned
a little more 1 saw through the partly
open door two more big bears in front
of the cabin. We didn't have even q
dirk knife in the cabin, no gun or re-
volver, and the AK was at the woodpile
thirty feet from the door, and the two
bears between me and it. 1 tell you 1
thought it was rainin' bears for min
ute. a good deal quicker than I'm
telling this jumped for the poker that
we used to fasten the cabin door with,
and slipped it into place. just then
the old she bear at the window gave a
growl and made pass at the window
with her paw. Biff, it came, sash,
glass, and all, on the floor. Before the
noise had stopped smash came the
other bears against the door, and it's
only miracle that it didn't come in.
The poker was bent all out of shape.
Well, Jim and me did lots of thinking
about that time, and if ever wanted a
45-repeater. wanted it right then. You
see the snow had been lying awful deep
up there and the bears was ravenous
and most likely hadn't had anything to
eat for long time. They have to get
terrible hungry before they will attack
cabin like that
ave threw burning paper and fire.
brands, dishes and everything we could
| hands OF {ho D1J ~, Go
window, but she just stood there and
glared at us. / never thought there
could be so much fire in al eye as there
was in hers. She stood there looking
at us and we at her, when all at once
we heard q noise on the roof. You bet
we knew what it was, too, and were
about ready to give up then. The 9
year-olds, the old bears cubs, had got
up on to the dirt roof of the cabin.
Pretty soon they commenced THROWN
dirt and in about two minutes had got
down to the poles that held the dirt.
We could look right up through the
poles where the dirt was clawed off and
see them. And want they mad! They
would claw along lengthwise Of the
poles and rake the bark off every clip,
and every minute we were expecting
them to get their claws in between the
poles and then we would be gone. Ii
they had known enough to give one or
two scrapes sideways they could easy
have scooped off enough poles to let
them down in. What then? Well, the
bears would have had square meal
and 1 wouldn't be here telling you
about it. All the time they were scrap
ing away up there I stood with the
straw bedtick on the floor open and a
lighted candle in my hand. AS told
jim, it was a poor chance, but I'd rather
be burned up than eaten up. The old
bear staid right there at the window all
the time watching us. It was too small
for her OF she'd have been in herself.
After awhile they seemed to get tired,
and, after proving around the cabin
until we were near frightened to death,
they went off. measured the biggest
ones tracks in the snow next morning,
and it was fourteen inches long. 1t
wasn't long before that cabin had a
rifle in it, and you don't catch me in a
bear country again with no protection
but straw bed and CANDLE"
4 LITTLE HISTORY.
A man in Ohio writes to the Bell to